According to the theory, the origins of the Red and Blue state divide go back to the English Civil War of the 1640s, when champions of Parliament fled to Massachusetts and supporters of the King found safe haven in Virginia.

July 4th - America's day of independence and freedom. It was also the day twenty years ago that the genocide was brought to an end in Rwanda - not by foreign hand but by the remarkable military campaign of the rebel army led by Rwanda's current President, Paul Kagame...

What is arguably the most famous version of the American national anthem is Jimi Hendrix's rendition played the morning of August 18th, 1969 at Woodstock. With its heavy use of amp feedback and distortion, commonly thought to simulate bombs and gunfire, many thought Hendrix's performance to be an indictment of the Vietnam War, a claim Hendrix himself has rubbished.

Today, the international media will fix its gaze on Warsaw as tens of thousands of far-right supporters in Poland take to the streets for the annual Independence Day march. This year, this demonstration will be under greater scrutiny, as it coincides with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change...

Independence Day marked the start of our travels to the North of India. I went with two other Indulge interns, Claire and Yasmin. Everything went smoothly with our flight and when we reached India Gate, we met up with an event organiser and entrepreneur, Viren, who we knew from Bangalore.

So as Malaysia celebrates her 56th year of independence and 50th birthday, I, like many, will blow out the proverbial candles with a fire from within my heart that burns all the brighter, the fiercer and the more surely. I, like many, will wish to see less exploitation of powers and less use of religion as a tool to marginalise minorities for social and political gain.

This Independence Day when all those around me will be raising their beers celebrating the separation of America from Great Britain I will be raising a mug of good ole PG tips in honour of both glorious Great Britain, my former homeland, and America - my new home.

In amongst all this exciting, depressing and uninteresting stuff the UK has still been under the thrall of the possible destruction of our national health service. Yes, I'm going to go on about it again.

With Twitter and the blogosphere (in the UK) full of murmers about the pros and cons of Americans in London marking both the 4th July and Ronald Reagan's centenary by placing a statue of him outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square, I thought I'd put on record (again) my admiration of him as a great speaker.